View allAll Photos Tagged based
Xerém, RJ - Brasil - 14/10/2017 - CTVL - .
Torneio OPG. Jogo Fluminense x Americano.
FOTO DE MAILSON SANTANA/FLUMINENSE FC.
.
IMPORTANTE: Imagem destinada a uso institucional e divulgação, seu uso comercial está vetado incondicionalmente por seu autor e o Fluminense Football Club...
.
IMPORTANT: Image intended for institutional use and distribution. Commercial use is prohibited unconditionally by its author and Fluminense Football Club.
.
IMPORTANTE: Imágen para uso solamente institucional y distribuición. El uso comercial es prohibido por su autor y por el Fluminense Football Club.
The colonization of the Moon is the proposed establishment of permanent human communities on the Moon. Advocates of space exploration have seen settlement of the Moon as a logical step in the expansion of humanity beyond the Earth. Recent indication that water might be present in noteworthy quantities at the Lunar poles has increased interest in the Moon. Polar colonies could also avoid the problem of long Lunar nights (about 354 hours, a little more than two weeks) and take advantage of the sun continuously.
Permanent human habitation on a planetary body other than the Earth is one of science fiction's most prevalent themes. As technology has advanced, and concerns about the future of humanity on Earth have increased, the argument that space colonization is an achievable and worthwhile goal has gained momentum. Because of its proximity to Earth, the Moon has been seen as a prime candidate for the location of humanity's first permanently occupied extraterrestrial base.
A lunar outpost was an element of the George W. Bush era Vision for Space Exploration, which has been replaced with President Barack Obama's space policy. The outpost would have been an inhabited facility on the surface of the Moon. At the time it was proposed, NASA was to construct the outpost over the five years between 2019 and 2024. The United States Congress directed that the U.S. portion, "shall be designated the Neil A. Armstrong Lunar Outpost".
On December 4, 2006, NASA announced the conclusion of its Global Exploration Strategy and Lunar Architecture Study. The Lunar Architecture Study's purpose was to "define a series of lunar missions constituting NASA's Lunar campaign to fulfill the Lunar Exploration elements" of the Vision for Space Exploration. What resulted was a basic plan for a lunar outpost near one of the poles of the Moon, which would permanently house astronauts in six-month shifts. These studies were made before the discovery of water ice (5.6 ± 2.9% by mass) in a polar crater, which may substantially affect plans.
A young seagull scrounging around in the last of the light comes in to check if I'm one of the people who can't read the "No Bird Feeding, Hazard to Aircraft" signs at the seaplane base. I've got to head downisland today, will catch up with everyone tonight or tomorrow. Have a fine Sunday.
Today (14 July 2015) is the first national day of remembrance for victims of honour-based abuse.
It is the first national Remembrance Day introduced by the charity Karma Nirvana in conjunction with Cosmopolitan Magazine.
Greater Manchester Police and Whalley Range High School for girls have collaborated to use it to remember victims and launch an awareness campaign encouraging young people to denounce honour based abuse crimes and make a difference for future generations.
The campaign is #dishonourthecrime and Whalley Range has produced a video in conjunction with GMP which has been disseminated to all schools across Greater Manchester.
The video was launched during the event and as a mark of respect pupils at the school released balloons at midday with the #dishonor the crime message.
Detective Chief Inspector Nicky Porter from Greater Manchester Police, said: “Choice is a very short word but one that many often take for granted. Each day we make decisions about our life from what we wear, the jobs we have and our friends.
“Unfortunately there are thousands of young women and men throughout the country who don’t have a choice. Being forced into a marriage to simply uphold your family’s ‘honour’ is no way to live a life. You should have the freedom to make decisions for yourself.
“By reporting the crime to police, we will ensure you are safeguarded, listened too and you are protected. Our campaign #dishonourthecrime is clear in its message. It is important that together with our communities we dishonour these crimes.”
The date is particularly poignant as it would have been Shafilea Ahmed’s 29th birthday, and as a tribute to her we remember the thousands of victims of honour-based violence across the world.
Shafilea’s tragic murder after years of violence at the hands of her parents shone a light on the hidden issue of honour-based violence within our communities.
Every day young women and men live in fear of those who are meant to love and nurture them, because the perpetrators of these crimes are often close family members , victims are reluctant to report. GMP recognises this and wants to use the opportunity today to raise awareness and encourage people to report incidents of abuse to the police.
Across GMP there have been in access of 120 incidents of honour based abuse reported in the past 12 mths The majority of these incidents have been reported by women between the ages of 15-24yrs .While it is known that there are male victims of honour based abuse, we believe this is an area which is relatively unreported.
Sharon Allen, Senior Child Protection Officer from Whalley Range 11-18 High School, said: “We have been recognised as a beacon of good practice in the area of safeguarding – particularly forced marriage and honour based violence. We have developed our practice over many years ensuring that the wellbeing of young people remain at the very heart of what we do. We are honoured to be the host for the North West’s Annual National Day of Remembrance.”
Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner Jim Battle said: “Today would have been Shafilea Ahmed’s 29th birthday and as a tribute to her we remember the thousands of victims of honour-based violence across the world. Shafilea’s tragic murder after years of violence at the hands of her parents rightly shocked the nation and shone a light on the hidden issue of honour-based violence within our communities. Every day young women and men live in fear of those who are meant to love and nurture them.
“So it’s important that while we commemorate we must also commit to putting an end to this abuse and today’s event is a step towards that. By talking openly about it, educating our young people and raising awareness in our communities we can challenge it and give victims a lifeline.
“I also want to congratulate Karma Nirvana and Cosmopolitan Magazine it’s thanks to their dedicated campaigning that the victims of honour-based violence will never be forgotten.”
Cosmopolitan and Karma Nirvana are encouraging people to sign their petition to pledge their support for change. You can sign the pledge by clicking the following link: www.change.org.uk/dishonourthecrime
For more information on the national campaign go to: www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/britainslostwomen
If you are a victim or know someone who is you can report to police on 101. Always dial 999 in an emergency.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some Background:
The Royal Libyan Air Force (سلاح الجو الملكي الليبي , Al Quwwat al Jawwiya al Malakiya al Libiyya) was established in September 1962 by a decision of the minister of defense Abd al-Nabi Yunis. Lt. Col. al-Hadi Salem al-Husomi was assigned to lead the new force. It was originally equipped with a small number of transports and trainers. In May 1967, the Kingdom of Libya reached an agreement with the United States to supply Northrop F-5A and Bs to the Royal Libyan Air Force and more advanced trainers, in the form of six Cessna T-37C trainers.
The Cessna T-37 Tweet (designated Model 318 by Cessna) was a small, economical twin-engined jet trainer type which flew for decades as a primary trainer for the United States Air Force (USAF) and in the air forces of several other nations. It was a response to the USAF’s request for proposals for a "Trainer Experimental (TX)" program in 1952, specifying a lightweight, two-seat basic trainer for introducing USAF cadets to jet aircraft. Cessna responded to the TX request with a twin-jet design with side-by-side seating. The USAF liked the Cessna design and the side-by-side seating since it let the student and instructor interact more closely than with tandem seating. In the spring of 1954, the USAF awarded Cessna a contract for three prototypes of the Model 318, and a contract for a single static test aircraft. The Air Force designated the type as XT-37.
The XT-37 had a low, straight wing, with the engines buried in the wing roots, a clamshell-type canopy hinged to open vertically to the rear, a control layout similar to that used on board of contemporary operational USAF aircraft, ejection seats, and tricycle landing gear with a wide track of 14 ft (4.3 m). It first flew on 12 October 1954. The wide track and a steerable nosewheel made the aircraft easy to handle on the ground, and the short landing gear avoided the need for access ladders and service stands. The aircraft was designed to be simple to maintain, with more than 100 access panels and doors. An experienced ground crew could change an engine in about half an hour.
The XT-37 was aerodynamically clean, so much so that a speed brake was fitted behind the nosewheel doors to help increase drag for landing and for use in other phases of flight. Since the short landing gear placed the engine air intakes close to the ground, screens pivoted over the intakes from underneath when the landing gear was extended, to prevent foreign object damage.
The XT-37 was fitted with two Continental-Teledyne J69-T-9 turbojet engines, French Turbomeca Marboré engines built under license, with 920 lbf (4.1 kN) thrust each. The engines had thrust attenuators to allow them to remain spooled-up (i.e. rotating at speeds above idle) during landing approach, permitting shorter landings while still allowing the aircraft to easily make another go-around in case something went wrong. Empty weight of the XT-37 was 5,000 lb (2,300 kg).
Tests showed the XT-37 had a maximum speed of 390 mph (630 km/h) at altitude, with a range of 935 mi (1,505 km). The aircraft had a service ceiling of 35,000 feet (10,700 m) but was unpressurized and was therefore limited to an operational ceiling of 25,000 feet (7,600 m) by USAF regulations.
The production T-37A was similar to the XT-37 prototypes, except for minor changes to fix problems revealed by the flight-test program. The first T-37A was completed in September 1955 and flew later that year. The T-37A was very noisy, even by the standards of jet aircraft. The intake of air into its small turbojets emitted a high-pitched shriek that led some to describe the trainer as the "Screaming Mimi", the "6,000 pound dog whistle" or "Converter" (= converts fuel and air into noise and smoke). The piercing whistle quickly gave the T-37 its name, the "Tweety Bird", or just "Tweet". The Air Force spent a lot of time and money soundproofing buildings at bases where the T-37 was stationed, and ear protection remains mandatory for all personnel when near an operating aircraft.
The USAF ordered 444 T-37As, with the last produced in 1959. In 1957, the US Army evaluated three T-37As for battlefield observation and other combat support roles, but eventually procured the Grumman OV-1 Mohawk instead. However, the Air Force liked the T-37A, but considered it to be underpowered; consequently, they ordered an improved version, the T-37B, with uprated J-69-T-25 engines. The new engines provided about 10% more thrust and were more reliable. Improved avionics were also specified for the new variant. A total of 552 newly built T-37Bs was constructed through 1973, and all surviving T-37As were eventually upgraded to the T-37B standard as well.
The T-37A and T-37B had no built-in armament and no stores pylons for external armament. In 1961, Cessna began developing a modest enhancement of the T-37 for use as a weapons trainer. This new variant, the T-37C, was primarily intended for export and could be used for light attack duties if required. The respective changes included stronger wings, with a pylon under each wing outboard of the main landing gear well, and the T-37C could also be fitted with wingtip fuel tanks, each with a capacity of 65 US gal (245 l), that could be dropped in an emergency. A computing gunsight and gun camera were added, too, and the T-37C could also be fitted with a reconnaissance camera mounted inside the fuselage.
The primary armament of the T-37C was the General Electric "multipurpose pod" with a .50 caliber (12.7 mm) machine gun with 200 rounds, two 70 mm (2.75 in) folding-fin rocket pods, and four practice bombs. Other stores, such as folding-fin rocket pods or even IR-guided Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, could be carried, too. However, the changes increased the weight of the T-37C by 1,430 lb (650 kg). As the engines were not upgraded, this reduced top speed to 595 km/h (370 mph), though the optional wingtip tanks increased maximum range to 1,770 km (1,100 mi). A total of 273 T-37Cs were exported until T-37 production stopped in 1975.
The F-5s and the T-37s were the first dedicated combat aircraft for the young Libyan Air Force, which only operated six Douglas C-47 transports and three Lockheed T-33A trainers at the time. Fifty-six personnel underwent training at bases in the US, pilots at Williams Air Force Base; a US Survey Team on Expansion came to Libya in August 1968 to supervise the introduction of the new jet aircraft and service them. The first aircraft arrived at Wheelus Air Base, a former US facility about 11 kilometers (6.8 mi) from Tripoli and local training started immediately.
Despite this enthusiastic start, the Royal Libyan Air Force and its small stock of aircraft did not last long because the government was overthrown in a coup d’état in 1969. The USA left Libya in 1970 and the air force changed its name to the Libyan Arab Republic Air Force (LARAF), and Wheelus Air Base was subsequently renamed Okba Ben Nafi Air Base, becoming the LARAF’s headquarter.
During the following months, Libya distanced itself from the United Kingdom and the United States and the serviceability of the older American aircraft quickly declined, especially the F-5s were affected. Eight F-5 single-seaters and two two-seaters had been delivered until then, as well as four T-37Cs - the rest of the order was cancelled. Educated service personnel for these aircraft was initially loaned from Greece as an emergency measure, but this did not help much, and most were eventually sold to Turkey (the F-5s) and Greece (the T-37Cs). Instead, close ties were developed with France, and, accordingly, an order for 110 Dassault Mirage 5s fighter bombers, twelve Fouga Magisters, ten Aérospatiale Alouette IIIs and nine Aérospatiale SA 321 Super Frelons was signed in December 1969, and in 1971 the LARAF still received eight C-130Hs from the United States. Negotiations for the purchase of Soviet military aircraft only started in 1973, in the light of the experiences of the Yom Kippur War, but relations with France were maintained.
General characteristics:
Crew: 2
Length: 29 ft 3 in (8.92 m)
Wingspan: 33 ft 99.3 in (12.581 m)
Height: 9 ft 2 in (2.79 m)
Wing area: 201 sq ft (18.7 m²)
Aspect ratio: 6.2:1
Airfoil: NACA 2418 at root, NACA 2412 at tip
Empty weight: 5,484 lb (2.490 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 8,000 lb (3.632 kg)
Powerplant:
2× Continental-Teledyne J69-T-25 turbojets, 1,025 lbf (4.56 kN) thrust each
Performance:
Maximum speed: 595 km/h (370 mph)
Cruise speed: 360 mph (580 km/h, 310 kn) at 35,000 ft (11,000 m)
Stall speed: 85 mph (137 km/h, 74 kn)
Range: 932 mi (1,500 km, 810 nmi) with internal fuel
Service ceiling: 38,700 ft (11,800 m)
Rate of climb: 3,370 ft/min (17.1 m/s)
Armament:
2 underwing pylons for stores up to 500 lb (227 kg) each
The kit and its assembly:
This small but exotic what-if model was inspired by decals for an RLAF F-5A from a Colorado Decals sheet – and I had stumbled upon these rather hapless aircraft that only served for a few months under this flag in a F-5 book. I found the historic time slot interesting and wondered about other aircraft that could have been introduced in 1968 and found that Libya might have needed some more and more modern jet trainers than the three T-33 it had. My first choice was the British Jet Provost, but since Libya procured the equipment from US sources, a Hasegawa A-37 kit from a lot (and without any plan for it yet) came to the rescue.
At first I wanted to build the Tweet OOB, but found that the A-37 was a little “too much” for Libya’s needs, so I decided to retrograde it to a T-37C – a light trainer, but still armed. Biggest changes were the omission of the refueling probe, the gun port was faired over, and I left away the optional tip tanks and replaced them with scratched wing tips, made from styrene. A small dorsal antenna fairing “hump” was added, a smaller one that the A-37s feature. Even though they were not necessary to represent the real aircraft I added styrene tube dummies to the exhaust ports - the gaping OOB holes did not convince me.
The underwing hardpoints were reduced to just a pair of pylons, and the light armament now consist only of a pair of LAU-7 unguided missile launchers (from the Italeri NATO weapons set). The single-piece canopy was cut into two parts for open display, in the cockpit two gunsights, seat belts and a hydraulic piston for the open canopy were added.
Painting and markings:
The RLAF F-5s were the benchmark, and they carried a rather simple/dry livery: the were painted overall in a dull silver lacquer (not NMF), similar to the USAF prototypes, with a black anti-glare panel. Finding a good paint for this look/finish was not easy, though, and I eventually settled for Humbrol 11 (Silver) with a light black ink washing and post-panel-shading with Humbrol’s Matt Aluminum metallizer (27002).
The cockpit interior became medium grey while landing gear and air intakes became white. The LAU-7 pods became very light grey.
To emphasize the Tweet’s trainer role I pimped the uniform silver livery with dayglo orange markings, procured from an Airfix Jet Provost sheet. National markings were taken from the aforementioned Colorado Decals F-5 sheet, even though its national markings are wrong: they lack green, they were just printed in 2C. To mend this flaw, I just added a thin green decal stripe to the flag on the fin, and the roundels, which are pretty small on the F-5, were completely replaced with bigger alternatives: Albanian air force markings from an Antonov An-2 (Balkan Models sheet), with a small green decal circle added to their center. Simple, but effective, and in combination with the orange stripes the whole aircraft looks quite attractive. The tactical codes were taken from a Myanmar MiG-29 (Caracal Models sheet). Most stencils were taken from the OOB sheet, with some more added from the 1/72 A-37 aftermarket sheet from PrintScale.
After a light treatment with graphite around the jet nozzles the model was sealed overall with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri), and this IMHO comes pretty close to the real world RLAF F-5 finish.
A small project, even though the tank-less wing tips were quite challenging. However, the Libyan Tweet looks very convincing, and with the high-viz trainer markings the whole package even has a stylish touch. The early Libyan roundels are also quite exotic, since they were only used for a couple of months
Now, before you jump on my case and ask "Who do frenzyrumble think he is calling this piece epic?!?!?" - This custom Optimus Prime is for the one and only Cliffy B (formally of Epic Games) (catch the name play?)
Optimus Prime is non-transforming, and nearly completely scratch-build. Using a variety of styrene sheeting, molding compounds, epoxies and a variety of other materials...Optimus Prime stands a stunning 28 inches tall (that's 71.12 cm to you guys way over there) Prime weighs in at approximately 16 pounds (7.3 kg)
Optimus Prime is loaded with Easter eggs, details, LEDs and articulation.
ARTICULATION :
Epic Prime has articulation similar to MP-01 Optimus Prime. His head is on a ball joint, shoulders slide in and out to allow maximum articulation, shoulders are ratcheting joints, upper arms swivel, elbows articulated, wrists on ball joints and swivel, each hand has articulated fingers (hinged) and a ball jointed thumb. Also, Prime's waist is articulated, upper hips ratcheting joints, upper legs swivel at hips, knees are double jointed (like MP-01) knee is on swivel joint, and finally (breath) feet are on double ball joints. His chest also hinges open to reveal the Matrix of Leadership. Finally, his skirt panels on his waist are hinged to allow more poseability on his legs.
ELECTRONICS :
Prime has a nest of wires in him. Starting up top, he has 2 5mm Blue LEDs for each eye (optical sensor) He also has one additional blue LED that illuminates in sync with the voice chip. His voice chip says classic phrases like "Autobots! Transform and Roll out!", "All we need is a little energon...and a lot of luck", "Megatron must be stopped!", "I want you to make a special run to Autobot City" These voice prompts are triggered through a push button on Prime's back. Optimus Prime also has 4 running lights on the top of his chest. There is a bright yellow-orange 5mm LED inside Prime's gun, and then 3 more blue LEDs inside the Matrix of Leadership. The electronics for the Matrix of Leadership are independently contained inside the matrix, with a push button and power supply all inside. The LEDs for the other components are wired to a chamber in Prime's back. The on/off switch and batteries are easily accessible. The on/off switches are under Prime's armpits.
DISPLAY BASE :
I'm very happy with Optimus Prime's display base. It measures 18" in diameter, and 5½" tall. It is trimmed in chromed aluminum and has a glass surface. under the glass, recessed is a routed Autobot symbol, trimmed in metallic Silver. The display base contains a 16" diameter white neon ring (inside, under class) and a 18" ice blue neon ring around the outside perimeter. A simple flick of a switch, and it lights up an entire room...and the custom.
PAINT WORK :
I wanted to of course give Prime the traditional Red/Blue/Silver paint scheme, but - put a more realistic twist on it. I added subtle wear and tear to every edge of his body. I also added subtle blemishes throughout, because I believe - no giant warrior robot should ever have a perfect paint job. After he was constructed, I filled in any imperfections with a plastic epoxy, then primed , sanded - starting with a medium grit, working my way up to a fine grit and wet-sand. Once that was all to my liking, I coated Prime with base coated of Polyurethanes and Lacquer paints (via Air brush) then did details with enamels and acrylics.
EXTRA GOODIES :
Prime's chest opens to reveal the Matrix of Leadership. The Matrix chamber was crafted to house the Matrix snug, I used a 1/2" rare earth magnet system, so the Matrix snaps perfectly into place. Prime's gun was built using PVC piping. His smoke stacks are from large markers. The pin/grommet things on the sides of his knee caps are from mini-Lego man heads. Each hand has 10 points of articulation.
Feel free to extend this into your own implement!
www.brickshelf.com/gallery/TheScooterGuy/LDD/MOCs/Technic...
Millsite based garratts GF no 2401 leading GMAM no 4122 on the climb from away from Magaliesburg towards Krugersdorp with the Union Limited tour train set on 29 November 1992.
The brown coaches were not very popular with photographers. It is however an authentic livery, pre-dating the classic red & grey which everyone associated with the South African Railways.
Esta fotografía fue tomada originalmente en el año 1942. El grupo de señoritas que se pueden apreciar en la foto, eran de Mayaguez. En ese tiempo existía un club social de señoritas, llamadas las The Victory's, según relata la historia. Eran coordialmente invitadas en actividades que realizaban los soldados de la época. Una de ellas aún vive. Agraciadamente cumplió 102 años de edad. Radica en el municipio de Mayaguez. Nota: (La última fila de atrás que hay tres jovenes, la que está debajo del muchacho del medio.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some Background:
The Hawker Typhoon was a British single-seat fighter-bomber, produced by Hawker Aircraft. It was intended to be a medium-high altitude interceptor, as a replacement for the Hawker Hurricane, but several design problems were encountered and it never completely satisfied this requirement.
Even before Hurricane production began in March 1937, Sydney Camm had embarked on designing its successor. Two preliminary designs were similar and were larger than the Hurricane. These later became known as the "N" and "R" (from the initial of the engine manufacturers), because they were designed for the newly developed Napier Sabre and Rolls-Royce Vulture engines respectively. Both engines used 24 cylinders and were designed for over 2,000 hp (1,500 kW); the difference between the two was primarily in the arrangement of the cylinders – an H-block in the Sabre and an X-block in the Vulture. Hawker submitted these preliminary designs in July 1937 but were advised to wait until a formal specification for a new fighter was issued.
In March 1938, Hawker received from the Air Ministry, Specification F.18/37 for a fighter which would be able to achieve at least 400 mph (640 km/h) at 15,000 feet (4,600 m) and specified a British engine with a two-speed supercharger. The armament fitted was to be twelve 0.303” Browning machine guns with 500 rounds per gun, with a provision for alternative combinations of weaponry. The basic design of the Typhoon was a combination of traditional Hawker construction, as used in the earlier Hawker Hurricane, and more modern construction techniques; the front fuselage structure, from the engine mountings to the rear of the cockpit, was made up of bolted and welded duralumin or steel tubes covered with skin panels, while the rear fuselage was a flush-riveted, semi-monocoque structure. The forward fuselage and cockpit skinning was made up of large, removable duralumin panels, allowing easy external access to the engine and engine accessories and most of the important hydraulic and electrical equipment.
The Typhoon’s service introduction in mid-1941 was plagued with problems and for several months the aircraft faced a doubtful future. When the Luftwaffe brought the new Focke-Wulf Fw 190 into service in 1941, the Typhoon was the only RAF fighter capable of catching it at low altitudes; as a result it secured a new role as a low-altitude interceptor.
By 1943, the RAF needed a ground attack fighter more than a "pure" fighter and the Typhoon was suited to the role (and less-suited to the pure fighter role than competing aircraft such as the Spitfire Mk IX). The powerful engine allowed the aircraft to carry a load of up to two 1,000 pounds (450 kg) bombs, equal to the light bombers of only a few years earlier. Furthermore, from early 1943 the wings were plumbed and adapted to carry cylindrical 45 imp gal (200 l; 54 US gal) drop tanks increasing the Typhoon's range from 690 miles (1,110 km) to up to 1,090 miles (1,750 km). This enabled Typhoons to range deep into France, the Netherlands and Belgium.
From September 1943, Typhoons were also armed with four "60 lb" RP-3 rockets under each wing. Although the rocket projectiles were inaccurate and took considerable skill to aim and allow for ballistic drop after firing, "the sheer firepower of just one Typhoon was equivalent to a destroyer's broadside".
By the end of 1943, eighteen rocket-equipped Typhoon squadrons formed the basis of the RAF Second Tactical Air Force (2nd TAF) ground attack arm in Europe. In theory, the rocket rails and bomb-racks were interchangeable; in practice, to simplify supply, some used the rockets only, while other squadrons were armed exclusively with bombs, what also allowed individual units to more finely hone their skills with their assigned weapons.
The Typhoon was initially exclusively operated in the European theatre of operations, but in 1944 it was clear that a dedicated variant might become useful for the RAF’s operations in South-East Asia. In the meantime, Hawker had also developed what was originally an improved Typhoon II, but the differences between it and the Mk I were so great that it was effectively a different aircraft, and it was renamed the Hawker Tempest. However, as a fallback option and as a stopgap filler for the SEAC, Hawker also developed the Typhoon Mk. IV, a tropicalized late Mk. I with a bubble canopy and powered by the new Bristol Centaurus radial engine that could better cope with high ambient temperatures than the original liquid-cooled Sabre engine. The Centaurus IV chosen for the Typhoon Mk. IV also offered slightly more power than the Sabre and the benefit of reduced vulnerability to small arms fire at low altitude, since the large and vulnerable chin cooler could be dispensed with.
3,518 Typhoons of all variants were eventually built, 201 of them late Mk. IVs, almost all by Gloster. Once the war in Europe was over Typhoons were quickly removed from front-line squadrons; by October 1945 the Typhoon was no longer in operational use, with many of the wartime Typhoon units such as 198 Squadron being either disbanded or renumbered.
The SEAC’s few operational Mk IVs soldiered on, however, were partly mothballed after 1945 and eventually in 1947 handed over or donated to regional nascent air forces after their countries’ independence like India, Pakistan or Burma, where they served as fighters and fighter bombers well into the Sixties.
The Burmese Air Force; initially only called “The military”, since there was no differentiation between the army’s nascent servies, was founded on 16 January 1947, while Burma (as Myanmar was known until 1989) was still under British rule. By 1948, the fleet of the new air force included 40 Airspeed Oxfords, 16 de Havilland Tiger Moths, four Austers, and eight Typhoon Mk. IVs as well as three Supermarine Spitfires transferred from the Royal Air Force and had a few hundred personnel.
The Mingaladon Air Base HQ, the main air base in the country, was formed on 16 June 1950. No.1 Squadron, Equipment Holding Unit and Air High Command - Burma Air Force, and the Flying Training School, were placed under the jurisdiction of the base. A few months later, on 18 December 1950, No. 2 Squadron was formed with nine Douglas Dakotas as a transport squadron. In 1953, the Advanced Flying Unit was formed under the Mingaladon Air Base with de Havilland Vampire T55s, and by the end of 1953 the Burmese Air Force had three main airbases, at Mingaladon, Hmawbi, and Meiktila, in central Burma.
In 1953, the Burmese Air Force bought 30 Supermarine Spitfires from Israel and 20 Supermarine Seafires as well as 22 more Typhoon Mk. IVs from the United Kingdom. In 1954 it bought 40 Percival Provost T-53s and 8 de Havilland Vampire Mark T55s from the United Kingdom and two years later, in 1956, the Burmese Air Force bought 10 Cessna 180 aircraft from the United States. The same year, 6 Kawasaki Bell 47Gs formed its first helicopter unit. The following year, the Burmese Air Force procured 21 Hawker Sea Fury aircraft from the United Kingdom and 9 de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otters from Canada. In 1958, it procured 7 additional Kawasaki Bell 47Gs and 12 Vertol H-21 Shawnees from the United States. Five years later, No. 503 Squadron Group was formed with No. 51 Squadron (de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otters and Cessna 180s) and No. 53 Squadron (Bell 47Gs, Kaman HH-43 Huskies, and Aérospatiale Alouettes) in Meiktila.
When the non-Burman ethnic groups pushed for autonomy or federalism, alongside having a weak civilian government at the center, the military leadership staged a coup d'état in 1962, and this was the only conflict in which the aging Burmese Typhoons became involved. On 2 March 1962, the military led by General Ne Win took control of Burma through a coup d'état, and the government had been under direct or indirect control by the military since then. Between 1962 and 1974, Myanmar was ruled by a revolutionary council headed by the general. Almost all aspects of society (business, media, production) were nationalized or brought under government control under the Burmese Way to Socialism, which combined Soviet-style nationalization and central planning, and also meant the end of operation of many aircraft of Western origin, including the last surviving Burmese Typhoons, which were probably retired by 1964. The last piston engine fighters in Burmese service, the Hawker Sea Furies, are believed to have been phased out in 1968.
General characteristics:
Crew: One
Length: 32 ft 6 in (9.93 m)
Wingspan: 41 ft 7 in (12.67 m)
Height: 15 ft 4 in (4.67 m)
Wing area: 279 sq ft (25.9 m²)
Airfoil: root: NACA 2219; tip: NACA 2213
Empty weight: 8,840 lb (4,010 kg)
Gross weight: 11,400 lb (5,171 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 13,250 lb (6,010 kg) with two 1,000 lb (450 kg) bombs
Powerplant:
1× Bristol Centaurus IV 18-cylinder air-cooled radial engine with 2,210 hp (1,648 kW) take-off
power, driving a 4-bladed Rotol constant-speed propeller
Performance:
Maximum speed: 412 mph (663 km/h, 358 kn) at 19,000 ft (5,800 m)
Stall speed: 88 mph (142 km/h, 76 kn)
Range: 510 mi (820 km, 440 nmi) with two 500 lb (230 kg) bombs;
690 mi (1,110 km) "clean";
1,090 mi (1,750 km) with two 45 imp gal (200 l; 54 US gal) drop tanks.[65]
Service ceiling: 35,200 ft (10,700 m)
Rate of climb: 2,740 ft/min (13.9 m/s)
Wing loading: 40.9 lb/sq ft (200 kg/m²)
Power/mass: 0.20 hp/lb (0.33 kW/kg)
Armament:
4× 20 mm (0.787 in) Hispano Mk II cannon in the outer wings with 200 rpg
Underwing hardpoints for 8× RP-3 unguided air-to-ground rockets,
or 2× 500 lb (230 kg) or 2× 1,000 lb (450 kg) bombs or a pair of drop tanks
The kit and its assembly:
The Hawker Typhoon is IMHO an overlooked WWII aircraft, and it’s also “underwiffed”. I have actually built no single Typhoon in my 45 years of model kit building - time to change that!
Inspiration was a lot of buzz in the model kit builder community after KP’s launch of several Hawker Tempest kits, with all major variants including the Sabre- and Centaurus-powered types. While the Tempest quickly outpaced the Typhoon in real life and took the glory, I wondered about a Centaurus-powered version for the SEA theatre of operations – similar to the Tempest Mk. II, which just came too late to become involved in the conflict against the Japanese forces. A similar Typhoon variant could have arrived a couple of months earlier, though.
Technically, this conversion is just an Academy Hawker Typhoon Mk Ib (a late variant without the “car door”, a strutless bubble canopy and a four-blade propeller) mated with the optional Centaurus front end from a Matchbox Hawker Tempest. Sounds simple, but there are subtle dimensional differences between the types/kits, and the wing roots of the Matchbox kit differ from the Academy kit, so that the engine/fuselage intersection as well as the wing roots called for some tailoring and PSR. However, the result of this transplantation stunt looked better and more natural than expected! Since I did not want to add extra fairings for air carburetor and oil cooler to the Wings (as on the Tempest), I gave the new creation a generous single fairing for both under the nose – the space between the wide landing gear wells offered a perfect location, and I used a former Spitfire radiator as donor part. The rest, including the unguided missiles under the wings was ordnance, was taken OOB, and the propeller (from the Academy kit) received an adapter consisting of styrene tubes to match it with the Matchbox kit’s engine and its opening for the propeller axis.
Painting and markings:
This was initially a challenge since the early Burmese aircraft were apparently kept in bare metal or painted in silver overall. This would certainly have looked interesting on a Typhoon, too – but then I found a picture of a Spitfire (UB 421) at Myanmar's Air Force Museum at Naypyidaw, which carries camouflage – I doubt that it is authentic, though, at least the colors, which markedly differ from RAF Dark Green/Dark Earth and the bright blue undersides also look rather fishy. But it was this paint scheme that I adapted for my Burmese Typhoon with Modelmaster 2027 (FS 34096, B-52 Dark Green, a rather greyish and light tone) and 2107 (French WWII Chestnut, a reddish, rich chocolate brown tone) from above and Humbrol 145 (FS 35237, USN Gray Blue) below – a less garish tone.
As usual, the model received a black ink washing and post-panel-shading for dramatic effect; the cockpit interior became very dark grey (Revell 06 Anthracite) while the landing gear became Medium Sea Grey (Humbrol 165), as a reminder of the former operator of the aircraft and its painting standards. The red spinner as well as the red-and-white-checkered rudder were inspired by Burmese Hawker Sea Furies, a nice contrast to the camouflage. It's also a decal, from a tabletop miniatures accessory sheet. This contrast was furthermore underlined through the bright and colorful national markings, which come from a Carpena decal sheet for exotic Spitfires, just the tactical code was changed.
After some signs of wear with dry-brushed silver and some graphite soot stains around the exhausts and the guns the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.
Voilà, a whiffy Hawker Typhoon – and it looks better than expected. Not only does the brawny Centaurus look good on the rather burly Typhoon, the transplantation worked out better than expected, too. However, with the radial engine the Typhoon looks even more like an Fw 190 on steroids?
When first flown at Edwards Air Force Base on January 20, 1974, the TF-16 was the most advanced fighter in the world. The aircraft in the photograph was flown extensively in the test support role while assigned to the Test Wing. During its career, it was used as chase aircraft for the first release of a Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) from a strategic bomber and also chased the final test mission of the Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM). (Text adapted from a sign at the site.)
With thanks to Stefan Tarzan for the image.
The image has been developed by Stefan from a previously unknown film that was purchased recently in an antique sale in Montana , USA. (amazing clarity considering the film was 70 years old and only recently developed)
Mobile Lego arctic base for research in the most extreme conditions. The base contains a snow scooter hangar, drill tower, crane, sensor array and laboratory.
U.S. Air Force basic military graduation and coining ceremony is held Sept. 10, 2020, for the 433rd Training Squadron on Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas. Due to current world events, the graduation ceremonies will be closed to the public until further notice for safety and security of the newly accessioned Airmen and their family members due to coronavirus (COVID-19).
A strongly enhanced image, based on a hand coloured postcard of the Mazda Electric Fountain, Victoria gardens, Grand Parade, Brighton. Copyright Wardell's. No. 724 The original pink and brown sepia tones have been reduced, and the hand painted colours have been enriched.
The reverse of the postcard affirms "Copyright to A. W. W. Brighton and Worthing. Printed in England."
The reverse also boasts that "THIS IS A REAL PHOTOGRAPH" indicating that the image on the front is a black and white photographic print, and NOT an image printed with ink. The colour of the scene is recreated by hand painting the developed print with coloured dyes. Incredibly, it was economic for WARDELL'S to do this. A detail highlighting evidence of the hand painting can be seen here.
The Fountain was given to the town of Brighton in 1930 by Thomson-Houston Ltd following an exhibition. (It has been speculated that the placement - near a cinema - was influenced by Thomson-Houston's involvement in one of several competing talking movie systems.) It was originally internally illuminated at night by colour changing lights.
(More information can be seen at My Brighton and Hove.)
The General Electric Company heavily promoted and licensed the Mazda light bulb brand, technology and fitting size to other companies in the hope of speeding market dominance.
There was even an Edison Mazda / General Electric Mazda Lamp Calendar featuring the works of the artist Maxfield Parrish.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some Background:
The Royal Libyan Air Force (سلاح الجو الملكي الليبي , Al Quwwat al Jawwiya al Malakiya al Libiyya) was established in September 1962 by a decision of the minister of defense Abd al-Nabi Yunis. Lt. Col. al-Hadi Salem al-Husomi was assigned to lead the new force. It was originally equipped with a small number of transports and trainers. In May 1967, the Kingdom of Libya reached an agreement with the United States to supply Northrop F-5A and Bs to the Royal Libyan Air Force and more advanced trainers, in the form of six Cessna T-37C trainers.
The Cessna T-37 Tweet (designated Model 318 by Cessna) was a small, economical twin-engined jet trainer type which flew for decades as a primary trainer for the United States Air Force (USAF) and in the air forces of several other nations. It was a response to the USAF’s request for proposals for a "Trainer Experimental (TX)" program in 1952, specifying a lightweight, two-seat basic trainer for introducing USAF cadets to jet aircraft. Cessna responded to the TX request with a twin-jet design with side-by-side seating. The USAF liked the Cessna design and the side-by-side seating since it let the student and instructor interact more closely than with tandem seating. In the spring of 1954, the USAF awarded Cessna a contract for three prototypes of the Model 318, and a contract for a single static test aircraft. The Air Force designated the type as XT-37.
The XT-37 had a low, straight wing, with the engines buried in the wing roots, a clamshell-type canopy hinged to open vertically to the rear, a control layout similar to that used on board of contemporary operational USAF aircraft, ejection seats, and tricycle landing gear with a wide track of 14 ft (4.3 m). It first flew on 12 October 1954. The wide track and a steerable nosewheel made the aircraft easy to handle on the ground, and the short landing gear avoided the need for access ladders and service stands. The aircraft was designed to be simple to maintain, with more than 100 access panels and doors. An experienced ground crew could change an engine in about half an hour.
The XT-37 was aerodynamically clean, so much so that a speed brake was fitted behind the nosewheel doors to help increase drag for landing and for use in other phases of flight. Since the short landing gear placed the engine air intakes close to the ground, screens pivoted over the intakes from underneath when the landing gear was extended, to prevent foreign object damage.
The XT-37 was fitted with two Continental-Teledyne J69-T-9 turbojet engines, French Turbomeca Marboré engines built under license, with 920 lbf (4.1 kN) thrust each. The engines had thrust attenuators to allow them to remain spooled-up (i.e. rotating at speeds above idle) during landing approach, permitting shorter landings while still allowing the aircraft to easily make another go-around in case something went wrong. Empty weight of the XT-37 was 5,000 lb (2,300 kg).
Tests showed the XT-37 had a maximum speed of 390 mph (630 km/h) at altitude, with a range of 935 mi (1,505 km). The aircraft had a service ceiling of 35,000 feet (10,700 m) but was unpressurized and was therefore limited to an operational ceiling of 25,000 feet (7,600 m) by USAF regulations.
The production T-37A was similar to the XT-37 prototypes, except for minor changes to fix problems revealed by the flight-test program. The first T-37A was completed in September 1955 and flew later that year. The T-37A was very noisy, even by the standards of jet aircraft. The intake of air into its small turbojets emitted a high-pitched shriek that led some to describe the trainer as the "Screaming Mimi", the "6,000 pound dog whistle" or "Converter" (= converts fuel and air into noise and smoke). The piercing whistle quickly gave the T-37 its name, the "Tweety Bird", or just "Tweet". The Air Force spent a lot of time and money soundproofing buildings at bases where the T-37 was stationed, and ear protection remains mandatory for all personnel when near an operating aircraft.
The USAF ordered 444 T-37As, with the last produced in 1959. In 1957, the US Army evaluated three T-37As for battlefield observation and other combat support roles, but eventually procured the Grumman OV-1 Mohawk instead. However, the Air Force liked the T-37A, but considered it to be underpowered; consequently, they ordered an improved version, the T-37B, with uprated J-69-T-25 engines. The new engines provided about 10% more thrust and were more reliable. Improved avionics were also specified for the new variant. A total of 552 newly built T-37Bs was constructed through 1973, and all surviving T-37As were eventually upgraded to the T-37B standard as well.
The T-37A and T-37B had no built-in armament and no stores pylons for external armament. In 1961, Cessna began developing a modest enhancement of the T-37 for use as a weapons trainer. This new variant, the T-37C, was primarily intended for export and could be used for light attack duties if required. The respective changes included stronger wings, with a pylon under each wing outboard of the main landing gear well, and the T-37C could also be fitted with wingtip fuel tanks, each with a capacity of 65 US gal (245 l), that could be dropped in an emergency. A computing gunsight and gun camera were added, too, and the T-37C could also be fitted with a reconnaissance camera mounted inside the fuselage.
The primary armament of the T-37C was the General Electric "multipurpose pod" with a .50 caliber (12.7 mm) machine gun with 200 rounds, two 70 mm (2.75 in) folding-fin rocket pods, and four practice bombs. Other stores, such as folding-fin rocket pods or even IR-guided Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, could be carried, too. However, the changes increased the weight of the T-37C by 1,430 lb (650 kg). As the engines were not upgraded, this reduced top speed to 595 km/h (370 mph), though the optional wingtip tanks increased maximum range to 1,770 km (1,100 mi). A total of 273 T-37Cs were exported until T-37 production stopped in 1975.
The F-5s and the T-37s were the first dedicated combat aircraft for the young Libyan Air Force, which only operated six Douglas C-47 transports and three Lockheed T-33A trainers at the time. Fifty-six personnel underwent training at bases in the US, pilots at Williams Air Force Base; a US Survey Team on Expansion came to Libya in August 1968 to supervise the introduction of the new jet aircraft and service them. The first aircraft arrived at Wheelus Air Base, a former US facility about 11 kilometers (6.8 mi) from Tripoli and local training started immediately.
Despite this enthusiastic start, the Royal Libyan Air Force and its small stock of aircraft did not last long because the government was overthrown in a coup d’état in 1969. The USA left Libya in 1970 and the air force changed its name to the Libyan Arab Republic Air Force (LARAF), and Wheelus Air Base was subsequently renamed Okba Ben Nafi Air Base, becoming the LARAF’s headquarter.
During the following months, Libya distanced itself from the United Kingdom and the United States and the serviceability of the older American aircraft quickly declined, especially the F-5s were affected. Eight F-5 single-seaters and two two-seaters had been delivered until then, as well as four T-37Cs - the rest of the order was cancelled. Educated service personnel for these aircraft was initially loaned from Greece as an emergency measure, but this did not help much, and most were eventually sold to Turkey (the F-5s) and Greece (the T-37Cs). Instead, close ties were developed with France, and, accordingly, an order for 110 Dassault Mirage 5s fighter bombers, twelve Fouga Magisters, ten Aérospatiale Alouette IIIs and nine Aérospatiale SA 321 Super Frelons was signed in December 1969, and in 1971 the LARAF still received eight C-130Hs from the United States. Negotiations for the purchase of Soviet military aircraft only started in 1973, in the light of the experiences of the Yom Kippur War, but relations with France were maintained.
General characteristics:
Crew: 2
Length: 29 ft 3 in (8.92 m)
Wingspan: 33 ft 99.3 in (12.581 m)
Height: 9 ft 2 in (2.79 m)
Wing area: 201 sq ft (18.7 m²)
Aspect ratio: 6.2:1
Airfoil: NACA 2418 at root, NACA 2412 at tip
Empty weight: 5,484 lb (2.490 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 8,000 lb (3.632 kg)
Powerplant:
2× Continental-Teledyne J69-T-25 turbojets, 1,025 lbf (4.56 kN) thrust each
Performance:
Maximum speed: 595 km/h (370 mph)
Cruise speed: 360 mph (580 km/h, 310 kn) at 35,000 ft (11,000 m)
Stall speed: 85 mph (137 km/h, 74 kn)
Range: 932 mi (1,500 km, 810 nmi) with internal fuel
Service ceiling: 38,700 ft (11,800 m)
Rate of climb: 3,370 ft/min (17.1 m/s)
Armament:
2 underwing pylons for stores up to 500 lb (227 kg) each
The kit and its assembly:
This small but exotic what-if model was inspired by decals for an RLAF F-5A from a Colorado Decals sheet – and I had stumbled upon these rather hapless aircraft that only served for a few months under this flag in a F-5 book. I found the historic time slot interesting and wondered about other aircraft that could have been introduced in 1968 and found that Libya might have needed some more and more modern jet trainers than the three T-33 it had. My first choice was the British Jet Provost, but since Libya procured the equipment from US sources, a Hasegawa A-37 kit from a lot (and without any plan for it yet) came to the rescue.
At first I wanted to build the Tweet OOB, but found that the A-37 was a little “too much” for Libya’s needs, so I decided to retrograde it to a T-37C – a light trainer, but still armed. Biggest changes were the omission of the refueling probe, the gun port was faired over, and I left away the optional tip tanks and replaced them with scratched wing tips, made from styrene. A small dorsal antenna fairing “hump” was added, a smaller one that the A-37s feature. Even though they were not necessary to represent the real aircraft I added styrene tube dummies to the exhaust ports - the gaping OOB holes did not convince me.
The underwing hardpoints were reduced to just a pair of pylons, and the light armament now consist only of a pair of LAU-7 unguided missile launchers (from the Italeri NATO weapons set). The single-piece canopy was cut into two parts for open display, in the cockpit two gunsights, seat belts and a hydraulic piston for the open canopy were added.
Painting and markings:
The RLAF F-5s were the benchmark, and they carried a rather simple/dry livery: the were painted overall in a dull silver lacquer (not NMF), similar to the USAF prototypes, with a black anti-glare panel. Finding a good paint for this look/finish was not easy, though, and I eventually settled for Humbrol 11 (Silver) with a light black ink washing and post-panel-shading with Humbrol’s Matt Aluminum metallizer (27002).
The cockpit interior became medium grey while landing gear and air intakes became white. The LAU-7 pods became very light grey.
To emphasize the Tweet’s trainer role I pimped the uniform silver livery with dayglo orange markings, procured from an Airfix Jet Provost sheet. National markings were taken from the aforementioned Colorado Decals F-5 sheet, even though its national markings are wrong: they lack green, they were just printed in 2C. To mend this flaw, I just added a thin green decal stripe to the flag on the fin, and the roundels, which are pretty small on the F-5, were completely replaced with bigger alternatives: Albanian air force markings from an Antonov An-2 (Balkan Models sheet), with a small green decal circle added to their center. Simple, but effective, and in combination with the orange stripes the whole aircraft looks quite attractive. The tactical codes were taken from a Myanmar MiG-29 (Caracal Models sheet). Most stencils were taken from the OOB sheet, with some more added from the 1/72 A-37 aftermarket sheet from PrintScale.
After a light treatment with graphite around the jet nozzles the model was sealed overall with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri), and this IMHO comes pretty close to the real world RLAF F-5 finish.
A small project, even though the tank-less wing tips were quite challenging. However, the Libyan Tweet looks very convincing, and with the high-viz trainer markings the whole package even has a stylish touch. The early Libyan roundels are also quite exotic, since they were only used for a couple of months
In late 1997, this area of Koh Kong, near Cambodia's coastal border with Thailand, was the site of extensive human trafficking. People were brought to houses similar to this one, many were drugged to keep them calm and quiet, as the traffickers waited to ship them on.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
As the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) lost control over the skies over Germany in the second half of the Second World War, it could no longer provide sufficient protection against Allied aircraft. Panzer divisions were especially affected by the lack of cover from fighter aircraft because they were always at the center of the most intense fighting.
The Germans already had copious amounts of half-tracked Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Guns (SPAAG) of different calibers and weights (Sd.Kfz.10/4, Sd.Kfz.6/2, Sd.Kfz.7/1, etc.). As these vehicles had very limited or no armor, they were vulnerable to enemy fire either from ground or air. The crew needed better protection from small arms fire and artillery/mortar high explosive fragmentation shell shrapnel. A tank-based anti-aircraft vehicle (Flakpanzer) could solve this problem, as it would have sufficient armor to resist most ground attacks with the exception of larger caliber guns. They would also provide some protection against air attacks, but even tanks could be destroyed by air ground-attack fire.
Many designs based on different Panzer chassis and weapons were tested and built during the war. The most successful early ones were based on the Panzer IV chassis (Möbelwagen, Wirbelwind and Ostwind), but one of the major shortcomings of all German Flakpanzers was the lack of a fully enclosed fighting compartment. As all were open-topped (because of easier construction, easier exhaust of gun fumes and the need to produce them as fast as possible), the gun crews were exposed to air attacks and the weather.
As the war progressed, German engineers tried to solve this problem by designing and building new Flakpanzers with fully enclosed turrets, based on later and bigger tank chassis’. One of these was the Flakpanzer based on the Panther tank, best known today as the ‘Coelian’, which was a new turret that could take various gun armaments.
The path to the Coelian SPAAG was not straight. In May 1943, Oberleutnant Dipl. Ing von Glatter-Götz, responding to the orders of Inspectorate 6, initiated the development of a new series of Flakpanzers based on already existing chassis. The Panzer I and II were outdated or used for other purposes. The Panzer III tank chassis was earmarked for the production of the StuG III and thus not available. The Panzer IV and the Panzer V Panther were considered next. The Panzer IV tank chassis was already in use for several German modifications, so it was decided to use it for the Flakpanzer program, eventually leading to the light “Kugelblitz” SPAAG. The Panzer V Panther was considered in case even the Panzer IV chassis proved to be inadequate for the task. Furthermore, the development of a whole new tank generation, the “Einheitspanzer” or “E-Serie”, had just been initiated.
The Germans formed a commission for the analysis of the effectiveness of enemy ground attack planes. The report (dated 31st June 1943) stated that, in the case of dive-bombing, the lowest point that the enemy plane reached was 1.200 to 1.500 m at an angle of 45-80°. Planes using larger caliber machine guns or cannons attacked at an altitude of around 150 to 300 m. The committee suggested that the best way to bring down enemy planes was using direct fire autocannons. To effectively fight the enemy planes, the future Flakpanzer would have to have a fully rotating turret with a high angle of fire and the caliber used should not be lower than 2 cm, with the more powerful 3.7 cm being preferred.
To give the crew the best protection possible and to meet any future Allied developments, the Panther-based Flakpanzer had to have a fully enclosed turret that could be armed with several different proposed weapon configurations. These included the 2 cm Flakvierling, 3.7 cm Flak either in twin or triple configuration, a newly developed 5.5 cm Gerät 58 Flakzwilling and even the powerful 88 mm caliber heavy anti-aircraft gun. The new turret design was to be ready for frontline service by the middle of 1944.
The first proposed design drawings were completed by Rheinmetall under the internal project number H-SkA 82827 in late May 1943 with the title “Turm Panther II mit Vierling MG 151/20”. This turret was heavily based on the Panther’s standard turret that it would simply replace. The new turret had to fulfill several set criteria like armor thickness and having an effective traversing mechanism. The armor protection of the turret was impressive, with 80 mm frontal armor and 40 mm on the sides. The turret was to be moved by using a hydraulic drive which was powered by the tank’s own engine. The maximum traverse speed was around 36° per second. Hydraulic power was used to raise the weapons, too, but a manual drive option was included as a fallback option.
The H-SkA 82827’s armament consisted of four 20 mm MG 151/20, mounted in staggered pairs, the same armament carried by the contemporary Panver IV-based “Möbelwagen” and “Wirbelwind” SPAAGs, too, but now under full armor protection. The elevation of the four guns was -5° to +75° and they had a combined practical rate of fire of 800 RPM, even though a maximum ROF of 1680 to 1920 RPM was theoretically possible. The weapons had a muzzle velocity of 900 m/s, a range of 4.800 m (15,720 ft) and an effective ceiling of 3.700 m (12,120 ft). They were belt-fed and separated from the turret crew, the gunner and the commander, which were seated in the left of the turret, weapons and ammunition were placed on the right side. The commander sat behind the gunner in an elevated position under a cupola, adapted from the Panther battle tank, for a good all-round view. Thanks to the belt-fed guns, no dedicated loader was necessary anymore, saving internal weight and space. The rest of the crew, driver and radio/machine gun operator, were seated in the Panzer V hull’s front in their standard positions.
After a wooden mock-up had been built, inspected and approved by the Heeresinspektorat 6, the go-ahead for the construction of five prototype turrets was given in September 1943, to be mounted and tested on refurbished Panther hulls. The new vehicle received the official designation Sd.Kfz. 171/1 “Flakpanzer V/20 mm”. On the 21st of December 1943, however, a Panzerkommision was formed to examine the further development of a Flakpanzer based on the Panther tank chassis. It was decided that the main armament should consist of at least two 3.7 cm caliber anti-aircraft guns, for more range and firepower, and this requirement was later revised to two even heavier 5.5 cm Gerät 58 guns. The Luftwaffe’s 30 mm MK 103 machine cannon was considered, too, since it had outstanding range, accuracy and penetration.
The problem was now that the Sd.Kfz. 171/1’s turret did not offer enough space or development potential to accommodate these heavier and bigger weapons, so that a completely new turret had to be designed from scratch around them. Daimler-Benz was chosen for this follow-up project, which was internally called “Flakpanzer 341” – after the SPAAG’s planned main armament with an experimental 3.7 cm (L/77) Flak 341 twin gun, also known as “Gerät 341”. In mid-1944 it would evolve into the Panther-based Coelian SPAAG family, but even this more sophisticated design with several armament variants became just a stopgap solution, bridging the delay of the anti-aircraft tanks based on the new Einheitspanzer chassis family.
Serial production of the Sd.Kfz. 171/1 was consequently dropped, only three fully operational prototypes were completed by March 1944, plus two armed turrets for static test. One of these turrets was later mounted onto another Panther hull, for a fourth operational vehicle. Rheinmetall kept on working with these vehicles and components until late 1945, and the four SPAAGs were also employed by the company’s Werksverteidigung unit (manned by the Rheinmetall staff, not by Wehrmacht soldiers) at the Apolda factory in central Thuringia.
The Sd.Kfz. 171/1s and the separate turrets were also used in the development programs for Rheinmetall’s so-called “Einheits-Flakturm” for the upcoming E-50/75 SPAAGs, primarily for targeting and rangefinding systems, weapon mounts and simplified turret movement mechanisms. One of these developments was the Kommandogerät 44, a much more compact analogue rangefinder, effectively an analogue fire control calculator that translated target and ambient data into electronic signals that could control weapon drives and trigger a weapon at an ideal moment. This innovative device eventually became part of the later E-50/75 SPAAGs that entered service in 1946.
The fate of these four unique vehicles after the factory’s invasion through Soviet troops is uncertain, though. They were probably destroyed by retreating German troops to prevent their experimental technologies from falling into enemy hands.
Specifications:
Crew: Four (commander, gunner, driver, radio-operator/hull machine gunner)
Weight: 40.5 tonnes (39.9 long tons; 44.7 short tons)
Length (hull only): 6.87 m (22 ft 6 in)
Width: 3.42 m (11 ft 3 in)
Height: 3.06 m (10 ft 2/3 in)
Suspension: Double torsion bar, interleaved road wheels
Fuel capacity: 720 litres (160 imp gal; 190 US gal)
Armor:
15–80 mm (0.6 – 3.15 in)
Performance:
Maximum road speed: 55 km/h (34 mph)
Operational range: 250 km (160 mi)
Power/weight: 15.39 PS (11.5 kW)/tonne (13.77 hp/ton)
Engine:
Maybach HL230 P30 V-12 petrol engine with 700 PS (690 hp, 515 kW)
ZF AK 7-200 gear; 7 forward 1 reverse
Armament:
4× 20 mm (0.787 in) MG 151/29 machine cannon in two twin mounts with a total of 3.200 rounds
1× 7.92 mm MG 34 machine gun in the front glacis plate with 2.500 rounds
The kit and its assembly:
This is an OOB what-if model, the prototype of the “Panther 20mm Flakvierling MG 151/20” from Dragon. The kit is actually mislabeled as “Flakpanzer 341”, but this designation had been allocated to the later prototype of the “Coelian” turret for the Panther chassis, just as described in the background. AFAIK, the “Panther 20mm Flakvierling MG 151/20” was not produced at all, there was just a wooden mock-up. And the whole project was quickly cancelled because it did not offer sufficient firepower and development potential. The only “official” designation I could find is the title of a project paper that describes the turret’s layout and construction, and it was called “H-SkA 82827.
But what if a small batch of these vehicles had been manufactured/completed and used by factory defense units like the Luftwaffe’s Werkschutzstaffeln?
That’s the basic idea/story behind this build, and it was kept OOB. The Dragon Panther is a simple affair and goes together well, but the instructions are weak, if not confusing. Good thing, though, is that the kit contains an extra sprue from a Jagdpanther kit that contains many optional parts for early and late Panther variants, as well as hull equipment, so that you get a good number of surplus parts for the spares box. The only downer is the fact that the soft vinyl tracks were molded in a bright sand tone, so that these delicate parts had to be completely painted.
Painting and markings:
The Panther 20mm Flakvierling is – even though it never “existed” – frequently depicted in a weird two-color scheme, probably consisting of Dunkelgelb (RAL 7028) over a red primer coat. But the depicted colors frequently appear much too garish and strong, like bright sunflower yellow over wine red! WTF? However, I liked the concept and adopted it for the model, just with more realistic tones and some personal twists.
The hull received an overall coat with RAL 3009 (Oxidrot), while the turret was painted with a paler shade of red (Humbrol 70, Brick red). On top of that, thinned Tamiya XF-57 (Buff) was used to add a fragmented meander pattern to break up the tank’s outlines. The result is quite attractive, and it might have worked well in an urban/factory environment – hence the idea of allocating the vehicle to a Werksschutz unit – several aircraft companies, e. g. Heinkel or Focke Wulf, also used prototypes for local defense, organized outside of Luftwaffe units.
To emphasize the prototype nature of this vehicle, the wheels and the armor skirts were, for some variety, painted in standard Hinterhalt camouflage colors, in Dunkelgelb (Tamiya XF-60), Olivgrün (RAL 6003, Humbrol 86) and Rotbraun (RAL 8017, Humbrol 160). The latter was also used for the engine bay cover, which I simply forgot to paint on Oxidrot in the first place. But the slightly darker Rotbraun blends well into the rest of the hull. The wheels were painted uniformly, and I added a wheel in Brick Red on each side as an un-camouflaged replacement. The armor skirts’ camouflage pattern consists of dark circles over a Dunkelgelb background, created with a stamp (self-made from fine sponge rubber) and mimicking the original “factory design” of the Hinterhalt paint scheme.
As mentioned above, the tracks had to be painted, and this time I tried a base with acrylic black paint from the rattle can, plus some grey and re brown wet-in-wet acrylic paint on top of that. Worked quite well and might become a new standard for this field of work.
The tactical markings became minimal, as the vehicle would be factory-operated and also a test article – hence it just received small Balkenkreuz insignia (on the hull ,mostly obscured by tools), and a large black “3”, edged in white for more contrast, on the turret sides, with smaller numbers at front and back of the turret for quick identification from every side.
The model received an overall washing with thinned dark brown acrylic paint and dry-brushing with light grey and beige, before it was sealed with matt acrylic varnish. Once the vinyl tracks had been mounted, the model’s lower areas and the running gear were dusted with grey-brown mineral pigments.
Well, another simple build, thanks to an OOB kit of this exotic SPAAG prototype. The result looks quite good and was completed in just two days, another member in my growing collection of real, semi-fictional and whiffy German SPAAG vehicles – turning this mock-up into an of an operational prototype of a Werksverteidigung unit certainly works and could actually have been, even though the Panther 20mm Flakvierling MG 151/20 just remained a stillborn proposal.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some Background:
The Royal Libyan Air Force (سلاح الجو الملكي الليبي , Al Quwwat al Jawwiya al Malakiya al Libiyya) was established in September 1962 by a decision of the minister of defense Abd al-Nabi Yunis. Lt. Col. al-Hadi Salem al-Husomi was assigned to lead the new force. It was originally equipped with a small number of transports and trainers. In May 1967, the Kingdom of Libya reached an agreement with the United States to supply Northrop F-5A and Bs to the Royal Libyan Air Force and more advanced trainers, in the form of six Cessna T-37C trainers.
The Cessna T-37 Tweet (designated Model 318 by Cessna) was a small, economical twin-engined jet trainer type which flew for decades as a primary trainer for the United States Air Force (USAF) and in the air forces of several other nations. It was a response to the USAF’s request for proposals for a "Trainer Experimental (TX)" program in 1952, specifying a lightweight, two-seat basic trainer for introducing USAF cadets to jet aircraft. Cessna responded to the TX request with a twin-jet design with side-by-side seating. The USAF liked the Cessna design and the side-by-side seating since it let the student and instructor interact more closely than with tandem seating. In the spring of 1954, the USAF awarded Cessna a contract for three prototypes of the Model 318, and a contract for a single static test aircraft. The Air Force designated the type as XT-37.
The XT-37 had a low, straight wing, with the engines buried in the wing roots, a clamshell-type canopy hinged to open vertically to the rear, a control layout similar to that used on board of contemporary operational USAF aircraft, ejection seats, and tricycle landing gear with a wide track of 14 ft (4.3 m). It first flew on 12 October 1954. The wide track and a steerable nosewheel made the aircraft easy to handle on the ground, and the short landing gear avoided the need for access ladders and service stands. The aircraft was designed to be simple to maintain, with more than 100 access panels and doors. An experienced ground crew could change an engine in about half an hour.
The XT-37 was aerodynamically clean, so much so that a speed brake was fitted behind the nosewheel doors to help increase drag for landing and for use in other phases of flight. Since the short landing gear placed the engine air intakes close to the ground, screens pivoted over the intakes from underneath when the landing gear was extended, to prevent foreign object damage.
The XT-37 was fitted with two Continental-Teledyne J69-T-9 turbojet engines, French Turbomeca Marboré engines built under license, with 920 lbf (4.1 kN) thrust each. The engines had thrust attenuators to allow them to remain spooled-up (i.e. rotating at speeds above idle) during landing approach, permitting shorter landings while still allowing the aircraft to easily make another go-around in case something went wrong. Empty weight of the XT-37 was 5,000 lb (2,300 kg).
Tests showed the XT-37 had a maximum speed of 390 mph (630 km/h) at altitude, with a range of 935 mi (1,505 km). The aircraft had a service ceiling of 35,000 feet (10,700 m) but was unpressurized and was therefore limited to an operational ceiling of 25,000 feet (7,600 m) by USAF regulations.
The production T-37A was similar to the XT-37 prototypes, except for minor changes to fix problems revealed by the flight-test program. The first T-37A was completed in September 1955 and flew later that year. The T-37A was very noisy, even by the standards of jet aircraft. The intake of air into its small turbojets emitted a high-pitched shriek that led some to describe the trainer as the "Screaming Mimi", the "6,000 pound dog whistle" or "Converter" (= converts fuel and air into noise and smoke). The piercing whistle quickly gave the T-37 its name, the "Tweety Bird", or just "Tweet". The Air Force spent a lot of time and money soundproofing buildings at bases where the T-37 was stationed, and ear protection remains mandatory for all personnel when near an operating aircraft.
The USAF ordered 444 T-37As, with the last produced in 1959. In 1957, the US Army evaluated three T-37As for battlefield observation and other combat support roles, but eventually procured the Grumman OV-1 Mohawk instead. However, the Air Force liked the T-37A, but considered it to be underpowered; consequently, they ordered an improved version, the T-37B, with uprated J-69-T-25 engines. The new engines provided about 10% more thrust and were more reliable. Improved avionics were also specified for the new variant. A total of 552 newly built T-37Bs was constructed through 1973, and all surviving T-37As were eventually upgraded to the T-37B standard as well.
The T-37A and T-37B had no built-in armament and no stores pylons for external armament. In 1961, Cessna began developing a modest enhancement of the T-37 for use as a weapons trainer. This new variant, the T-37C, was primarily intended for export and could be used for light attack duties if required. The respective changes included stronger wings, with a pylon under each wing outboard of the main landing gear well, and the T-37C could also be fitted with wingtip fuel tanks, each with a capacity of 65 US gal (245 l), that could be dropped in an emergency. A computing gunsight and gun camera were added, too, and the T-37C could also be fitted with a reconnaissance camera mounted inside the fuselage.
The primary armament of the T-37C was the General Electric "multipurpose pod" with a .50 caliber (12.7 mm) machine gun with 200 rounds, two 70 mm (2.75 in) folding-fin rocket pods, and four practice bombs. Other stores, such as folding-fin rocket pods or even IR-guided Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, could be carried, too. However, the changes increased the weight of the T-37C by 1,430 lb (650 kg). As the engines were not upgraded, this reduced top speed to 595 km/h (370 mph), though the optional wingtip tanks increased maximum range to 1,770 km (1,100 mi). A total of 273 T-37Cs were exported until T-37 production stopped in 1975.
The F-5s and the T-37s were the first dedicated combat aircraft for the young Libyan Air Force, which only operated six Douglas C-47 transports and three Lockheed T-33A trainers at the time. Fifty-six personnel underwent training at bases in the US, pilots at Williams Air Force Base; a US Survey Team on Expansion came to Libya in August 1968 to supervise the introduction of the new jet aircraft and service them. The first aircraft arrived at Wheelus Air Base, a former US facility about 11 kilometers (6.8 mi) from Tripoli and local training started immediately.
Despite this enthusiastic start, the Royal Libyan Air Force and its small stock of aircraft did not last long because the government was overthrown in a coup d’état in 1969. The USA left Libya in 1970 and the air force changed its name to the Libyan Arab Republic Air Force (LARAF), and Wheelus Air Base was subsequently renamed Okba Ben Nafi Air Base, becoming the LARAF’s headquarter.
During the following months, Libya distanced itself from the United Kingdom and the United States and the serviceability of the older American aircraft quickly declined, especially the F-5s were affected. Eight F-5 single-seaters and two two-seaters had been delivered until then, as well as four T-37Cs - the rest of the order was cancelled. Educated service personnel for these aircraft was initially loaned from Greece as an emergency measure, but this did not help much, and most were eventually sold to Turkey (the F-5s) and Greece (the T-37Cs). Instead, close ties were developed with France, and, accordingly, an order for 110 Dassault Mirage 5s fighter bombers, twelve Fouga Magisters, ten Aérospatiale Alouette IIIs and nine Aérospatiale SA 321 Super Frelons was signed in December 1969, and in 1971 the LARAF still received eight C-130Hs from the United States. Negotiations for the purchase of Soviet military aircraft only started in 1973, in the light of the experiences of the Yom Kippur War, but relations with France were maintained.
General characteristics:
Crew: 2
Length: 29 ft 3 in (8.92 m)
Wingspan: 33 ft 99.3 in (12.581 m)
Height: 9 ft 2 in (2.79 m)
Wing area: 201 sq ft (18.7 m²)
Aspect ratio: 6.2:1
Airfoil: NACA 2418 at root, NACA 2412 at tip
Empty weight: 5,484 lb (2.490 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 8,000 lb (3.632 kg)
Powerplant:
2× Continental-Teledyne J69-T-25 turbojets, 1,025 lbf (4.56 kN) thrust each
Performance:
Maximum speed: 595 km/h (370 mph)
Cruise speed: 360 mph (580 km/h, 310 kn) at 35,000 ft (11,000 m)
Stall speed: 85 mph (137 km/h, 74 kn)
Range: 932 mi (1,500 km, 810 nmi) with internal fuel
Service ceiling: 38,700 ft (11,800 m)
Rate of climb: 3,370 ft/min (17.1 m/s)
Armament:
2 underwing pylons for stores up to 500 lb (227 kg) each
The kit and its assembly:
This small but exotic what-if model was inspired by decals for an RLAF F-5A from a Colorado Decals sheet – and I had stumbled upon these rather hapless aircraft that only served for a few months under this flag in a F-5 book. I found the historic time slot interesting and wondered about other aircraft that could have been introduced in 1968 and found that Libya might have needed some more and more modern jet trainers than the three T-33 it had. My first choice was the British Jet Provost, but since Libya procured the equipment from US sources, a Hasegawa A-37 kit from a lot (and without any plan for it yet) came to the rescue.
At first I wanted to build the Tweet OOB, but found that the A-37 was a little “too much” for Libya’s needs, so I decided to retrograde it to a T-37C – a light trainer, but still armed. Biggest changes were the omission of the refueling probe, the gun port was faired over, and I left away the optional tip tanks and replaced them with scratched wing tips, made from styrene. A small dorsal antenna fairing “hump” was added, a smaller one that the A-37s feature. Even though they were not necessary to represent the real aircraft I added styrene tube dummies to the exhaust ports - the gaping OOB holes did not convince me.
The underwing hardpoints were reduced to just a pair of pylons, and the light armament now consist only of a pair of LAU-7 unguided missile launchers (from the Italeri NATO weapons set). The single-piece canopy was cut into two parts for open display, in the cockpit two gunsights, seat belts and a hydraulic piston for the open canopy were added.
Painting and markings:
The RLAF F-5s were the benchmark, and they carried a rather simple/dry livery: the were painted overall in a dull silver lacquer (not NMF), similar to the USAF prototypes, with a black anti-glare panel. Finding a good paint for this look/finish was not easy, though, and I eventually settled for Humbrol 11 (Silver) with a light black ink washing and post-panel-shading with Humbrol’s Matt Aluminum metallizer (27002).
The cockpit interior became medium grey while landing gear and air intakes became white. The LAU-7 pods became very light grey.
To emphasize the Tweet’s trainer role I pimped the uniform silver livery with dayglo orange markings, procured from an Airfix Jet Provost sheet. National markings were taken from the aforementioned Colorado Decals F-5 sheet, even though its national markings are wrong: they lack green, they were just printed in 2C. To mend this flaw, I just added a thin green decal stripe to the flag on the fin, and the roundels, which are pretty small on the F-5, were completely replaced with bigger alternatives: Albanian air force markings from an Antonov An-2 (Balkan Models sheet), with a small green decal circle added to their center. Simple, but effective, and in combination with the orange stripes the whole aircraft looks quite attractive. The tactical codes were taken from a Myanmar MiG-29 (Caracal Models sheet). Most stencils were taken from the OOB sheet, with some more added from the 1/72 A-37 aftermarket sheet from PrintScale.
After a light treatment with graphite around the jet nozzles the model was sealed overall with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri), and this IMHO comes pretty close to the real world RLAF F-5 finish.
A small project, even though the tank-less wing tips were quite challenging. However, the Libyan Tweet looks very convincing, and with the high-viz trainer markings the whole package even has a stylish touch. The early Libyan roundels are also quite exotic, since they were only used for a couple of months
U.S. Air Force basic military graduation and coining ceremony is held March 4, 2021, for the 331st Training Squadron at the Pfingston Reception Center on Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas. Due to current world events, the graduation ceremonies will be closed to the public until further notice for safety and security of the newly accessioned Airmen and their family members due to coronavirus (COVID-19).